Man I hate sitting through subtitles, but when it comes to horror I'd be willing to make an exception.

Jesus Christ, what is wrong with you?

It's in my top 10 films of all-time. Absolute classic.

So you'd rather read subtitles than listen to someone speak?

Well, 1) you are listening to someone speak, albeit in a different language and 2) I never said I preferred it. I'm simply exasperated that someone would willingly cut off such a huge and significant portion of films. It's like refusing to listen to music that doesn't have electric guitar in it or something.

You aren't listening to someone speak though; if you don't speak the language you might as well be listening to seals.
Nobody likes subtitles, they just deal with them. This douchy snob attitude most film people have about subtitles would make you think that they believe they drastically enhance the filmwatching experience when in fact they detract from it a little bit. But if anybody ever shows signs that they would prefer to not watch a subtitled film they lose all their douchy film snob points, so not wanting to read the movie as your trying to watch becomes paramount to heresy.

That is perhaps the worse analogy you could think to make btw. It's more like refusing to listening to music that has some of the parts removed and transcribed in linear notes that you are expected to follow along to.

When it comes to Italian horror though, dubbing is gen erally better than the subtitles, because the style of dubbing adds this really dream-like and wooden atmosphere. Also, generally half the actors are speaking in English and half in Italian, but yea, you have to make sure you get the right version of Black Sabbath as it was originally cut to death, or at least the first of the 3 shorts were, because it had a lesbain relationhip in it.

By the definition of every word I used in that sentence, you are listening to someone speak. You might not be able to understand the words in a literal sense, but you can still pick up on other cues (intonation, speed, pitch, tone of voice, etc.). It's not at all comparable to listening to seals.



I like them in the sense that without them I would often have no idea what was going on in a foreign movie.



They certainly do detract from the experience, quite a bit. So much is often lost in translation - not to mention the time spent reading the subtitles at the bottom of the screen is time not spent watching what's actually going on in the movie. Nothing I wrote indicated anything to the contrary.



The subtext of Negative Creep's post at the top of the page is that he doesn't watch movies with subtitles. Preferring to watch movies in one's native tongue is probably normal, but that doesn't excuse dismissing out of hand any film in a foreign tongue. I don't care if I sound douchey. It's not hard to read subtitles. It's a stupid reason not to watch a film.

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Now who's playing semantics?



Then it's completely understandable that someone who is not totally immersed in film and may not be interested in the artistic totality of cinema would be reluctant to watch a film with subtitles, right?



The subtext was that he strongly dislikes viewing subtitled films, something which is relatable to the majority of the filmviewing public, and which we have already established is understandable.
Hm, guess that wasn't really subtext, since that is exactly what he said.

This reminds me of an episode of Frasier when some woman asks him if he likes subtitles and his response is that he prefers them.

I never said I wouldn't watch a movie with subtitles, I just said I'd prefer not to.

Yeah, and I also think Roger Waters is a great lyricist.
What the fuck is wrong with me?

Preferring not to watch films with subtitles, that's what! You miss out like crazy on the world's greatest films because of that. Get over it and start bingeing on foreign films, NC. Start with Kwaidan. Possibly the best non-English speaking horror film since Vampyr (which, you should not overlook either because it is a masterpiece in the genre)

Duly noted.
Likewise, you should overcome your thing about not watching sequels.

Erm, no. If you can't tell the emotional difference between the vocalising of fellow human beings and those of wild animals then there's something seriously wrong with you.



It's nothing intrinsic to subtitles, it's about the quality of dubbing. I watch a lot of Japanese animation and the vast majority of English dubs for it really aren't as good as the original Japanese, so watching the originals with subtitles is preferable. When it comes to live action there's also a much greater problem with lip syncing.



The closest musical analogy to Neg's position would be dismissing music with lyrics in a different language in favour of over-dubbed lyrics in English performed by a different vocalist.